Request: Moderators for Smartphones > Excalibur - About xda-developers.com

In order to have a better forum, many of the regulars would like to have some moderator attention. There are topics that are difficult to navigate, and a constant repetition of the same questions from new users.
The Excalibur Forum is a fairly active place, with some interesting original development, but it is even difficult for the senior-member types to find the resources, details and response to threads that they are looking for. Many of us have begun using our signatures as bookmarks to post because it is the only method of sharing common answers efficiently available to us.
There are several volunteers within the Excalibur regulars that are willing to take on the responsibility, and have proven themselves to be patient, good communicators and friendly many times over. Here is a discussion of the problem there: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=390733 Please let us know if this is feasible.
Thank you Admin(s).

We really need some Moderators on the Excalibur Forum it will help get all the information better placed, there is a lot of activity on the forum so we get the same information repeat it time after time from different people and it just makes it harder for the noobs on the forum to find out a quick solutions for their issues.
Hope we could get some help with this Admins.

I agree with the request. It would really make the Smartphones > Excalibur forum a lot better.

I'm behind you guys on this
It is getting out of hand in the Excalibur forums.

I completely agree with this. It wouldn't even take alot of work to make this forum more 'user friendly'. I feel somebody who uses the forum just needs to be able to creat a thread, pin it to the top so it doesn't get lost and be the only person that can post in that section. Therefore they would be able to post questions and answers themselves for the topics that keep coming up (eg. key mapping, sms/mms settings... the list goes on)
Lets make this happen people are not willing to use the search button and look around so lets make it as easy as possible to get the answers they need without reposting a question

I fully agree, senior members who contribute to the excalibur forum....( not senior members who don't...you know who you are) that also have a vast knowledge of modding and general issues are the ones i'd like to see....
Myself, Mikey1022, Profezza, OrganicM, Kavana, Rickwyatt, Rip Syntaxx are a few i could think of that would be great at being a moderator

Hmmm any admins around ?

+1
this forum need moderator...

I would be willing to moderate. I'm on there 24 x 7 almost and have grown quite familiar with the Excalibur and its operating system

Any word on this yet guys ? I'm itching to suggest a few sticky threads in the Excalibur forum.

mikechannon said:
Noticed the plea for a Moderator.
Let's have a couple of names for good candidates who would be willing to do it and we'll see what can be done.
Mike
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I nominate mikechannon

Me too! We just need *someone* to cleanup and add some badly needed stickys!!

I'm waiting on this too. I can't wait to go in "Cleanup & Organization" mode on Xda. I have enough information that I would like to compile so it's easy for everyone to use. Me & Organic are always on xda. There's so many redundant threads and so much trash that needs to be cleaned up and put in order so life is easier. Everyday there's new thread which have already been answered so many times. Using stickies and cleaning the excalibur thread will honestly make it so much easier on noobs as well as everybody else. Let us know as we're eager to get this going as soon as possible.

We haven't forgotten about you. In fact it's in "committee" for discussion as we speak.
In the meantime, feel free to build the Wiki and create useful threads that consolidate information. Once this is done you can easily PM existing Mods and request a Sticky. In fact if you PM me directly I'll make my best efforts to get to it ASAP but please allow that it might take a few hours for me to respond/react to requests.

Thank you for a response.
Go Chicago

Yea i think its down to 4 now, myself, OrganicM, Mikey1022, and luckybandit that would be the most interested.

id love to become a Moderator ​

Just an FYI, site Admin is currently extending invitations to a few selected candidates for moderation in the Smartphone Subforums.
So you should have additional Mods who are knowledgeable on your specific devices shortly.
I know, we're almost as bad as a bloated government sometimes but we are doing what we can to look out for you guys.

Related

Easter Present - XDA Live 0.3?

Hi Kyphur,
Happy easter all of you!
hope you have nice easter .
Will 0.3 will be released this weekend?
AdoMad
STOP This at once!
If you only READ before you post, stop posting questions repeatedly!
0.3 Will be ready when it's ready and thats it!
yea man just have some patience.
it will some come and we will have some fun ;-)
happy easter to you all.
Okay, this thread is going to go no-where but to some possible bashing.
Could it be closed?
He asked a question... He got his answer, I dont see any reason to argue or cause any grief on this matter whatsoever.
STOP it at once !
I suggest to close this and to ban the noobs who ask this dummies questions !
This Forum
I've been a long time visitor and active member of many forums. However, I only recently have had the fortune of discovering this wonderful forum where unbelievable things are being done. This forum is beneficial to me via my Cingular 8525 and I greatly appreciate the plethora of knowledge contained within this forum and those that help by graciously making this knowledge available to others.
That being said, I cannot believe the despicable elitist attitude of many of the members. I understand and am willing to overlook the use of the term noob or newbie; however, I do not understand the amount of belittling and the attitude that is allowed to propagate in this forum and find it incomprehensible. Not only does it degrade an otherwise amazing forum, it speaks volumes about those charged with moderating the forum.
In my opinion, everyone here would benefit from a dramatic shift in the level of tolerance of this behavior. Furthermore, the moderators should reevaluate their policies and consider changing their stance on this issue.
dallen said:
That being said, I cannot believe the despicable elitist attitude of many of the members. I understand and am willing to overlook the use of the term noob or newbie; however, I do not understand the amount of belittling and the attitude that is allowed to propagate in this forum and find it incomprehensible. Not only does it degrade an otherwise amazing forum, it speaks volumes about those charged with moderating the forum.
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Click to collapse
I don't think the people here are elitists. I believe they are tired. Tired of the same questions being posted over and over. This thread would have been answered with the search function.
This is by far one of the best technical forums around. These forums were created to support development, not for the average phone hobbyists. Everything here should be considered "beta". Unfortunately people think everything is going to work 100% of the time. This will not be the case.
I think the moderators are doing a pretty good job. I do believe that more posts should get removed before the flame job starts.
Long story short....XDA is a great resource...give it a chance. I believe you would have really liked XDA a couple of months ago before "Hofo migration" started aka the "8525 effect". I hope the forums will return to the concise and straight forward technical and developmental forums that they were a couple of months ago.
tco said:
I don't think the people here are elitists. I believe they are tired. Tired of the same questions being posted over and over. This thread would have been answered with the search function.
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tco,
Thanks for replying. I agree with everything that you said. The reason that I highlighted the above is because I take issue with a portion of what you say. If people are tired of answering "simple" questions that they feel could be answered with a simple seach, then why don't they show their diapproval by not answering and allow these types of questions to either go unanswered, where they will quickly fall to the bottom of the message board, or better yet, allow someone that doesn't mind answering these types of question to answer them?
I've sifted through 70 pages of posting after posting just to find the answers to some relatively simple questions that I've had (this in spite of utilizing the advanced searching features). I could have saved a bunch of my time if I weren't so afraid of being chastised for asking a question that has already been answered in some 80-page thread.
I think people should be free to ask questions without fear of being criticized. Maybe a special section of the forum ought to either be dedicated to these types of questions, or a section of the forum ought to be restricted to "senior members." Either way, I strongly feel that the ones that deserve to be harassed are not those with questions, but those that feel that they are too good to simply offer an answer and choose to belittle the asker.
dallen said:
tco,
Thanks for replying. I agree with everything that you said. The reason that I highlighted the above is because I take issue with a portion of what you say. If people are tired of answering "simple" questions that they feel could be answered with a simple seach, then why don't they show their diapproval by not answering and allow these types of questions to either go unanswered, where they will quickly fall to the bottom of the message board, or better yet, allow someone that doesn't mind answering these types of question to answer them?
I've sifted through 70 pages of posting after posting just to find the answers to some relatively simple questions that I've had (this in spite of utilizing the advanced searching features). I could have saved a bunch of my time if I weren't so afraid of being chastised for asking a question that has already been answered in some 80-page thread.
I think people should be free to ask questions without fear of being criticized. Maybe a special section of the forum ought to either be dedicated to these types of questions, or a section of the forum ought to be restricted to "senior members." Either way, I strongly feel that the ones that deserve to be harassed are not those with questions, but those that feel that they are too good to simply offer an answer and choose to belittle the asker.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Keep in mind you sifted through 70 or 80 pages of posting because they were so many of the same questions being asked. The truth is I am also tired of going through 80 pages to stay of the up to date. In the past 24hrs things have improved compare to the past 4-8 weeks (less postings and more reading, testing and reporting).
dallen said:
I've been a long time visitor and active member of many forums. However, I only recently have had the fortune of discovering this wonderful forum where unbelievable things are being done. This forum is beneficial to me via my Cingular 8525 and I greatly appreciate the plethora of knowledge contained within this forum and those that help by graciously making this knowledge available to others.
That being said, I cannot believe the despicable elitist attitude of many of the members. I understand and am willing to overlook the use of the term noob or newbie; however, I do not understand the amount of belittling and the attitude that is allowed to propagate in this forum and find it incomprehensible. Not only does it degrade an otherwise amazing forum, it speaks volumes about those charged with moderating the forum.
In my opinion, everyone here would benefit from a dramatic shift in the level of tolerance of this behavior. Furthermore, the moderators should reevaluate their policies and consider changing their stance on this issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Their responses are in line and they behold the ability to react however they would like. How would you like it if you put xxx hours building and testing for 100 people to come in and ask the same question over and over, they don't appreciate it 1 bit. don't blame jas for saying **** it and not wanting to publicly release any more, yeah that means I won't see any of his roms, but I would have done the same with the reactions that were seen with 2.0. The site is called xda DEVELOPERS for a reason. this isn't the site for someone that knows **** about their phone but wants to "look cool to their friends" the sooner this is realized the sooner the forum can get back to a civilized manner.
CUSTEL said:
Their responses are in line and they behold the ability to react however they would like.
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Click to collapse
Then that means that we are also free to "react however [we] like" to their reactions. I, for one, see these "reactions" as immature, unjustified, and despicable. From now on, I will exercise my "ability to react however like" by calling people out for acting childish.
CUSTEL said:
The site is called xda DEVELOPERS for a reason. this isn't the site for someone that knows **** about their phone but wants to "look cool to their friends" the sooner this is realized the sooner the forum can get back to a civilized manner.
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Click to collapse
If this site were intended to be solely for "developers," then registrations would be limited only to that class of members.
dallen said:
Then that means that we are also free to "react however [we] like" to their reactions. I, for one, see these "reactions" as immature, unjustified, and despicable. From now on, I will exercise my "ability to react however like" by calling people out for acting childish.
If this site were intended to be solely for "developers," then registrations would be limited only to that class of members.
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Click to collapse
That is the most ignorant thing I have ever read.
First thing... this thread is being locked because the original poster did NOT need to start a thread like this.. This is something he could have read in another thread or pm'd kyphur for...
2nd thing is how the thread was hijacked yet again by people complaining, whining, sharing there opinions on something that wasnt related to the topic... there is already a topic for this that is open to everyone... the mods are taking our stance and working on what we feel should be acceptable.. This sub-fora has done a complete 180 from what it was like earlier this week...
@dallen ... your choice to speak out on the matter here in this thread where it wasnt appropriate and doesnt make it any better than the ones before you.. like i mentioned above there is a thread for this, so before you quickly tell others they were out of line maybe you should look at yourself...
@custel yes this was designed to be a developers forum, however due to the growth of HTC popularity the site has transformed into more than that... just read whats on the homepage of xda-developers.com
Welcome to xda-developers.com
This site is about certain PDA-phones, made by a secretive firm called HTC in Taiwan. Their makers named them 'Wallaby', 'Himalaya', 'Blue Angel', 'Wizard' and 'TyTN', but almost nobody knows them by those names. The mobile provider O2 sells them under the brand-name 'XDA', and that's what we had in our hands first. They're also known as Qtek, MDA, SX-56, Hermes and many, many other names.
Since we develop software for it, we need information, and nobody seemed eager or ready to give us what we needed. So we 'reverse-engineered' the devices, found a lot of information, and shared it with the world. But as our site grew we realised that lots of ordinary users were also suffering from a lack of support. They started using the xda-developers forum to communicate and before long the forum was as much a user forum as it was a developer forum.
We hope that you will enjoy this site and find it as useful as we do. We encourage you to donate or otherwise support this site. Of course absolutely all proceeds from donations will benefit this community.
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My Head's Going to Explode - Sticky's == Good

With the amount of editing and new versions of ROM's and applications, and people's suggestions, it takes going 39 pages deep into a thread to get any good info, or a download.
For Example, Kavana's thread, Rickwyatt's thread....my god. Is it possible to sticky JUST the latest version of ROM's, applications, etc.
So many versions of everyone's ROM, it's hard for the newer people (such as myself) to know wtf ROM to get, and to know if they're inclusive to updates from the previous version.
I installed Kavana's lastest ROM a few weeks ago, but I like some of the updates that Rickwyatt has done, but it's so hard to understand the progression of versions. Also Rickwyatt's threat makes my eyes bleed with all the ascii seperating the versions. A FINAL version would be nice, and a list of what it includes.
Another sticky with add-on links or attachments would be key as well. I think keeping ROMs and apps down to a few threads would be a lot easier for people who are new to flashing to understand.
I wish we had a moderator in this forum, that actually took care of these things, but it doesn't look like one exists.
d0m1n0 said:
With the amount of editing and new versions of ROM's and applications, and people's suggestions, it takes going 39 pages deep into a thread to get any good info, or a download.
For Example, Kavana's thread, Rickwyatt's thread....my god. Is it possible to sticky JUST the latest version of ROM's, applications, etc.
So many versions of everyone's ROM, it's hard for the newer people (such as myself) to know wtf ROM to get, and to know if they're inclusive to updates from the previous version.
I installed Kavana's lastest ROM a few weeks ago, but I like some of the updates that Rickwyatt has done, but it's so hard to understand the progression of versions. Also Rickwyatt's threat makes my eyes bleed with all the ascii seperating the versions. A FINAL version would be nice, and a list of what it includes.
Another sticky with add-on links or attachments would be key as well. I think keeping ROMs and apps down to a few threads would be a lot easier for people who are new to flashing to understand.
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I think you're absolutely right. Doing so would eliminate a lot of the redundant questions that continue to be asked. By the way, it bothers me when noobs get pounced on because they ask questions that have already been covered. Unless they've been lurking for weeks prior to registering--how are they to know that their issues have already been adressed several times before?! I'm by no means an expert...but I am a tad more knowledgeable now than I was when I first logged on here. I STILL have "noobish" questions here and there! Some are VERRRRRY NOOBISH! lol But I would hope that someone would lend a hand to help me out from time to time. ((exhaling)) Whew...
I agree with everything that what just said. I am new and I find it hard to search for anything because I don't know what's new or updating. I started a thread for help and no one seems to wanna help.
I've been here for a while now, I just don't post as much, only if necessary and mind you, getting my thread sticked - The Upgrade from Windows 5 to 6 Guide was a mission. I even asked to be the moderator for this forum because I really have a good idea as to where what can go, Me & OrganicM/Ricky/Kavana/RIPSyntaxx are some of the members I can think of as moderators. I asked many times to be the moderator but I didn't even get a reply to know if I was selected or not.
If I'm elected as the moderator, I'll organize everything as soon as possible and delete threads that are not needed and taking space for no reason. I'll do it accordingly
1) Guides for Upgrading/Solution to Errors etc
2) SIM/CID/APP Unlock
3) ROMS
4) Registry Hacks/Tweaks
5) Apps
6) Backgrounds/Themes
7) Games
6) Suggestions
7) Etc
- That's just a quick rough format but you get the drill
and let me tell you something, I completely agree even with whatever that's been said, even though I'm an old member - I had to dig through threads to even find stuff that's worth it for me, for example - registry tweaks for OldSaps Favorites to work - cmon now :S
I had to search and search - so why not make it easier for all newb's and old members so everythings organized and in one place??
Can some moderator help us out? In the smartphone section, we have the most Excalibur users compared to other phones. I'm not putting anyone down but there's many threads compared to others.
Why not make 3 moderators for each section? If you guys think I'm good enough to be a moderator, I don't mind. I'd be happy to moderate - If not me, no problem - Anyone senior who knows the subject and knows what to do to keep this thread clean !
Please Help Us, Moderators !
lukybandit said:
I've been here for a while now, I just don't post as much, only if necessary and mind you, getting my thread sticked - The Upgrade from Windows 5 to 6 Guide was a mission. I even asked to be the moderator for this forum because I really have a good idea as to where what can go, Me & OrganicM/Ricky/Kavana/RIPSyntaxx are some of the members I can think of as moderators. I asked many times to be the moderator but I didn't even get a reply to know if I was selected or not.
If I'm elected as the moderator, I'll organize everything as soon as possible and delete threads that are not needed and taking space for no reason. I'll do it accordingly
1) Guides for Upgrading/Solution to Errors etc
2) SIM/CID/APP Unlock
3) ROMS
4) Registry Hacks/Tweaks
5) Apps
6) Backgrounds/Themes
7) Games
6) Suggestions
7) Etc
- That's just a quick rough format but you get the drill
and let me tell you something, I completely agree even with whatever that's been said, even though I'm an old member - I had to dig through threads to even find stuff that's worth it for me, for example - registry tweaks for OldSaps Favorites to work - cmon now :S
I had to search and search - so why not make it easier for all newb's and old members so everythings organized and in one place??
Can some moderator help us out? In the smartphone section, we have the most Excalibur users compared to other phones. I'm not putting anyone down but there's many threads compared to others.
Why not make 3 moderators for each section? If you guys think I'm good enough to be a moderator, I don't mind. I'd be happy to moderate - If not me, no problem - Anyone senior who knows the subject and knows what to do to keep this thread clean !
Please Help Us, Moderators !
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Click to collapse
Let's make this guy moderator. newbs like me need a guide.
I agree! This forum is great but looking for the information is become more difficult and sometimes confusing.
I agree we need some moderators here, but i think we might have to post this on the general Section, see if we get the moderators to help us out.
I fully agree. I joined this forum just a couple of weeks ago, and it's been a living h*ll waving through all the threads here at XDA and at Howardforums just to find the solutions I need. Even the FAQ threads at Howardforums are ancient and 50+ pages, just a lot of stuff to read.
Get a poll going on.
I definitely agree with this and strongly urge EVERYONE to support so we can get 3 moderators. I myself can be one depending on user response as I'm familiar with the layout, the content and have been here for a while to know what's good and what's not. I was the one who wrote the The Windows Mobile 5 to 6 Guide and I know it helped a lot of people. Before, people used to post questions non stop and eventually a lot of users got frustrated. I do suggest a FULL CLEAN UP of this section and I could get it done hopefully by the coming weekend if everyone here helps me out to become a moderator. Here's my suggestions for moderators
1) Organic (AMAZING Contributor - The 6.1 Slide Panel King)
2) Outerdepth (Very Helpful - Has the knowledge and the resources available to help you)
3) PudgeDaddy (Was one of the prime reasons behind Weather Panel and has contributed a lot as well and is very helpful from first-hand experience
and finally Me only because I do have the extra time to help clean up the mess, have the knowledge, have been posting regularly and finally know what to do when it comes to helping the majority of questions.
It's upto you guys and someone has to e-mail the Moderators because I did in the past and No Luck. Finally, I'm not sure if everyone's willing to do this (from the 3 that I suggested) but I definitely will be happy to do it.
Keep Posting and Let's do something about this, guys !
What do you say guys?
Help me out here.
if you want to provide useful, up-to-date info, why not use the wiki?
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=HTC_Excalibur
I will be happy to moderate the threads and forum here. I'm here almost 24 7 anyway. I've also tried to PM other moerators and even the admin...with no luck.
After reading this thread, I feel like I'm on Capitol Hill. lol Re-elect lukybandit for District 4 congressman!
I posted a verbose request for Mods (or making our own) to the staff here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=392112
Please visit, and maybe tack your approval on too? If everyone does this, it might affect them more?
Profezza said:
I posted a verbose request for Mods (or making our own) to the staff here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=392112
Please visit, and maybe tack your approval on too? If everyone does this, it might affect them more?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did my part on this lets hope we get more people to comment on it so we could get this going.
I'd be more than happy to moderate the Excalibur thread as well. I am almost here 24/7 myself. Me, Organic & one more person who is a regular (so far I've seen outerdepth to be pretty regular and jjdograz - not sure if thats the right username) but yes both of these are very helpful, have the knowledge and are pretty regular. I'd definitely help this forum out. I know what to do and how to get rid of the junk as soon as possible and help this thread a better place to be. Right now, in my opinion - it is a nightmare. So many newb's and even old-timers have such a hard time finding the right information. As Windows 6.1 is the current ROM, Me & Organic will collaborate and break it down for everybody with the right sticky's and information needed to get your 6.1 up & running without errors. Furthermore, I will have Recommendations (for apps, regedits), solutions to errors etc. You get the picture. I love XDA and so does almost everybody. Without XDA, my phone would have been a HTC s620 but thanks to XDA it's now a customized and highly modified machine.
I've said what I could have, please read my previous posts to see what I would do and how I would do things. If you don't think I'm the right person, no problem
I only want 3 moderators in this forum so visiting XDA could be a peaceful one. As of now, the search function has been fully abused, atleast by me because I have such a hard time finding the right information when infact, all the crucial information should be stickied.
Anyway, do your part and help get this going. As it'll only benefit newbies and ofcourse old timers, it's best we get to this as soon as possible. Thanks
Cmon guys we got to get this going so we could have a beter looking forum and make it easy to all of us to find updates.
I think the ROM cooks just need to learn to use the wiki. e.g. have a table sorted by date of all the ROMs and a page about each.
Good point... but the question is... will the majority of the users use the wiki ? Nope.

A complaint about this section of XDA-DEVS. (Development and Hacking)

quite simply, the the 'development and hacking' section of xda-devs has a cluelessn00b to developer ratio of about 1000-1. I understand that everyone is excited about some of the stuff that goes on in that section, but its bad for several reasons:
firstly, how can any dev communicate when people are continuously rudely demanding information (in broken english or text speek) which is on the first page of a thread or has been communicated several times since then.
secondly, its not safe for the cluelessn00bs... if i was a bit more evil, i could easily make an app to kill to boot loader and pretend that its the latest manila4d or whatever. real devs would probably think about it before running it, clueless noobs would dive right in and we'd have a wave of bricked devices.
i know its hard to fix this kind of issue, and this post is not meant as any disrespect to any mod or admin of xd.com (its clearly disrespect to the cluelessb00ns who cant read the domain name, the forum section nor the first post)
the only suggestions i can personally make are an allow list on threads - managed by the thread owner (and the ability to pass ownership of the first thread would make sense too) or maybe to post in dev+hacking you have to be a senior member (having said that, ive seen some senior members be as clueless and the n00bs)
i beg that some consideration is placed on this, because, in all reality, ive given up on the manila3d thread. theres just no point in me battling the waves of idiocy any longer. the chance of me actually developing? pffft.
It saddens me
I was a bit disappointed hearing this from a marvelous developer such as you are but I believe you are not evil because you have tried your best to bring us the best out of our devices
Please do reconsider...
I hear what you're saying, mate. I lurked around this place for over six months before making my first post, just reading up and learning. People don't want to read anymore...they think that this place is the instant free tech support center.
djboo, I don't agree! Most of the threads in D&H subforum are developer or constructive threads. This is not an easy thing to accomplish, and I think it shows the quality of the forum. You can't disable access to "noobs", developers make their stuff for everyone, not just other developers or experienced people! I'm glad if other people like something I make.
Partially agree...
djboo said:
quite simply, the the 'development and hacking' section of xda-devs has a cluelessn00b to developer ratio of about 1000-1. I understand that everyone is excited about some of the stuff that goes on in that section, but its bad for several reasons:
firstly, how can any dev communicate when people are continuously rudely demanding information (in broken english or text speek) which is on the first page of a thread or has been communicated several times since then.
secondly, its not safe for the cluelessn00bs... if i was a bit more evil, i could easily make an app to kill to boot loader and pretend that its the latest manila4d or whatever. real devs would probably think about it before running it, clueless noobs would dive right in and we'd have a wave of bricked devices.
i know its hard to fix this kind of issue, and this post is not meant as any disrespect to any mod or admin of xd.com (its clearly disrespect to the cluelessb00ns who cant read the domain name, the forum section nor the first post)
the only suggestions i can personally make are an allow list on threads - managed by the thread owner (and the ability to pass ownership of the first thread would make sense too) or maybe to post in dev+hacking you have to be a senior member (having said that, ive seen some senior members be as clueless and the n00bs)
i beg that some consideration is placed on this, because, in all reality, ive given up on the manila3d thread. theres just no point in me battling the waves of idiocy any longer. the chance of me actually developing? pffft.
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Click to collapse
I partially second that, although I think that membership seniority based on number of posts isn't the best practice if to implement what you proposed. As I, for example, don't post a lot but read the forum for almost 2 years, and have dev. background (and I guess there a lot of others like that), there are some that post a lot of questions and/or comments that are not that dev. inclined or do not have the knowledge (yet?).
I do see your point here, and me too stopped following the TF3D thread after tons of non development related issues. Maybe putting Dev/Hack as read-only and people would have to ask a mod / admin for posting rights on it? And then giving full access to the Q&A thread / new section? So devs. could enjoy it more, general community could still get the latest (downloading newer version from Dev/Hack, etc.) and get questions answered in an orderly fashion... BUT, what with those nice little apps people write and post here from time to time, that come from someone that is not THAT involved in the community? They'd simply go elsewhere, and I guess this IS the most valuable asset the community have. With all due respects to the "regulars", I think those that pass by once in a while and contribute are
invaluable too. Guess it's the price to pay for innovation, having to sort through the non-sense to find the gems.
In the end, I think the problem here are the filters we use. Maybe we just need to find a better way to organize the data here, so it's easier to follow... What I do hope, is that whatever is done, doesn't change the essence of this great oasis...
I kinda agree with ur second part but i'm sure someone would have told the mods if it was a "dangerous app", rite?
I am a noob
Ok, I understand quite well what you are saying. Being a noob myself, i am learning as much as i can, slowly but I hope surely.
I try to read thoroughfully each thread that I have interest in.
The only regret I have is the search engine. For example, I'm still searching for a thread where it explains how to modify spb mobile shell files to have PI8 as the default calendar. I know the intel is there somewhere, but I'm having a hard time to find the right post/thread.
So maybe one of the possibilities would be to enhance a little the search engine or the way results are shown => enlighten the searched words...
Please reconsider, don't be to hard on the noobs, I think we aren't so bad, some of us want to learn.
And thank you very much for your patience, talent and ideas.
I do agree too that there is too much "I like that.... whats it for?" when a lot of the time the developers do put the information in their posts. BUT..... sometimes these STUPID, RANDOM comments do contribute by putting an idea out there to be expanded on. Sometimes they provide needed feedback and ideas.
If you restrict access to these areas then you may as well shut down the site.
This is a forum and as such there will ALWAYS be those annoying clueless posts but you have to remember that you were once there yourself...
You have to make allowances for those members who DON'T speak english very well as they may be very tech savy but just have difficulty putting their ideas down in English. They may actually give something back..
And thats my 2 cents
hi all
in fact there was a section missing , here , for asking
seems they are doing something very soon , reading the sticky thread
Here
and so the D&H will come back to be free for real dev
djboo perhaps you are a little hasty in this thread and I agree with some of what you say, however, alot of ppl respect everything you and other developers give us immensely! without ppl like yourself alot of us would never use Windows Mobile devices, instead following the masses of other "mind washed" CrApple iphone uses, anyway please don't stop sharing just because a few mindless teenagers didn't get enough Oxygen at birth!
people make their own choices. if you post something which might trigger a brick and someone uses it you can blame him for either trying something without investigating first or for just being plain stupid (depending on the circumstances).
the fact that this section is a target for terrorist idiots action isn't different from any other internet or real forum in the world. people tend to go wherever's warmer and cuddle there.. and try to suck every little ounce of good they can find in that place.
that's why you can find thousands of stupid posts and questions instead having a clear, professional section. not using search, not being able to read rules before posting.. that's international.
as for restricting... I must disagree to the proposal. it would require more work from the dev to find the members he'd like to share this with instead of just posting his work. and being a senior member on this forum means NOTHING considering it depends on the number of posts you have rather on how long you've been around or how much you have contributed to this community.
but what i do suggest is, that a member will have to be at least X months old in this forum to post. this will make people use search and learn before they come up with stupid questions.
cheers.
As a link above has p[pointed out, there is a new forum coming for questions. If you really have a problem with some of this noob questions, PM a mod/report the post.
Also, if you want to post a thread as an announcement, rather than a questions/answers thread, PM a mod to get it locked.
If you don't let new members post, they will never find anything out.
One final thing: you yourself have posted this in an area in which it doesn't belong. It has nothing to do with Development or Hacking, it's about what happens in this forum. As such, I'm going to move the thread to the "About xda-devs" section.
Thread's like this always remind me this post by Kyphur: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2031989&postcount=45
Ta
Dave
i dont beleive personally in censorship of anysort. seriously. im like a big ass hippy and everything.
but some of the people in the developers section of this site have barely developed full sentances let alone developed on an 'xda' phone. the floods of the same people asking the same questions over and over again is just disheartening.
maybe just the ability for the thread owner to delete posts would help. since about post 40 on the manila3d thread, theres been...ooh. 7 maybe 8 relevant posts? the rest have been 'my device wont turn off' which is answered in the first post.
meh. maybe we should just open up a new thread for the real developing. disguise the topic. then we might get some work done.
djboo said:
i dont beleive personally in censorship of anysort. seriously. im like a big ass hippy and everything.
but some of the people in the developers section of this site have barely developed full sentances let alone developed on an 'xda' phone. the floods of the same people asking the same questions over and over again is just disheartening.
maybe just the ability for the thread owner to delete posts would help. since about post 40 on the manila3d thread, theres been...ooh. 7 maybe 8 relevant posts? the rest have been 'my device wont turn off' which is answered in the first post.
meh. maybe we should just open up a new thread for the real developing. disguise the topic. then we might get some work done.
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Click to collapse
If you want closed developing, why not do it via e-mail, or PM?
DaveShaw said:
Thread's like this always remind me this post by Kyphur: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2031989&postcount=45
Ta
Dave
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that man said it better than i ever could.
l3v5y said:
If you want closed developing, why not do it via e-mail, or PM?
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i dont want closed developing. i want developing. currently the main thread in question is more like doing lines for teacher. once a day, log in, "HTC-CA drivers disable shutdown, TF3D uses those drivers. use manilatoggle to disable TF3D before you power down" x10
djboo said:
i dont beleive personally in censorship of anysort. seriously. im like a big ass hippy and everything.
but some of the people in the developers section of this site have barely developed full sentances let alone developed on an 'xda' phone. the floods of the same people asking the same questions over and over again is just disheartening.
maybe just the ability for the thread owner to delete posts would help. since about post 40 on the manila3d thread, theres been...ooh. 7 maybe 8 relevant posts? the rest have been 'my device wont turn off' which is answered in the first post.
meh. maybe we should just open up a new thread for the real developing. disguise the topic. then we might get some work done.
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Click to collapse
djboo... I understand where you are coming from, but I also do not totally agree with your comments. Although I may be a noob, I do have a lot ov experiance in computing. I do not have the time to develop of backwords engineer apps. I wish I did. I would enjoy doing it. I agree with you that the thread owner should be able to delete posts that are off topic, but I think the thread owner should also move a question with an answer to the first page if they see multiple posts. This would make it easier to find some of the common answers. I agree that users should use the search, but it does not always return what you are looking for. I have made a post and been berated for not using the search (when in fact I had). I truly enjoy the work you and the rest of the developers are doing. Without you guys, my phone would be quite boring, but because of the work done on this site, I am quite happy with my phone and how it operates. I have friends that think I am a god because I help them with thier phone, but I would not be able to do half of what I do if it were not for the work done here. I hope you go back to work on Manilla3D. We noobs need the knowledge you provide. As for off topic posts such as the nes on the Manilla3D thread, a lot of them go on due to people endulging these people by answering thier post or flaming them. I have seen senior members do this and all it does is fuel a lot of these guys. Ignore them! Geez, I have had my ligidimate questions ignored, why not ignore the non-ligitimate ones? Anyway, I will get off my soap box. I appreciate everthing all of you developers do and I hope one day I will have the time to contribute to the development community. Take care.
It is possible to set up a "thread owner" or thread based permission system but it would take some work and more importantly a Vbulletin developer to iron out the issues that may come up.
I have tried it on one other site but it was a little difficult. Of course I think a more productive idea is to have developer groups. Vbulletin has a group system built in as of 3.7 and it allows for comments and such. In 3.8 it will allow groups to have their own message boards. With a little help you can set up 3.7 to also have message boards controlled by the owner of the group.
DaveShaw said:
Thread's like this always remind me this post by Kyphur: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2031989&postcount=45
Ta
Dave
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djboo said:
that man said it better than i ever could.
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Yup that's why it's in my signature under XDA Mantra.

Changes to rules, practices and standards while on XDA?

Have there been some rule, practices or standards changes to how members should be interacting on the forums of XDA?
More now than ever I see an increase in moved threads, derogatory comments from older members and a lack of consistency in regulating and allowing questions, answers and comments to be made on the forums. Is this a fabrication of my own mind or has there been an increase that other have noted?
If there have been changes and if there has been an increase in complaint about usage of the forums, conduct, etc, than why have members not received an updated TOS or an email indicating what the changes are? Why are pinned, stickied threads not universally posted across forums so all members see them regardless of what sub-forum they are in?
In other words, why for 4 years does the forum seem polite, friendly and awesome but today I fear to press SUBMIT on anything?
Is the community being stiffled because there are so many new HTC users and they are newbs and taking advantage of the positive community that XDA is?
Anyway I hope that XDA is not seeing an influx of stupidity in it's user community and thus causing pain to the real heroes on this forum. Some of us have politely used this forum as a resource and LIFE SAFER for our devices and we definately don't want things to change.
Thanks for any input to help me ease back into posting and having dialogs with the rom devs and cooks.
On my personal opinion, I´m not a Mod or Dev, I´m just a simple member
Of course XDA-DEVS has been changing and adapting
Is not the same to have a site with 30 members with more personal and friendly contact between them than to have a site with hundreds of users...
personal friendly contact of course is lost in certain way, I don´t mean that XDA is not friendly anymore, but rules must change and adapt to the big site that has become now
Of course more rules have to apply.
Also imagine you are a Mod and you find that in a year you answered the same question like 1000 times!, of course you´ll be more sensitive when someone ask the same again.
80% of the members here never READ the rules so they don´t care about them, they just want to be attended and answered by their personal needs
In a few words only a few people really respect this site.
Just my personal point of view, not intend to offend anyone
Cheers,
There have been a lot of threads being moved to help with the organization. Mainly with the floods of anonymous questions in the wrong areas.
One major problem seems to be the people who never think to read the wiki, seems that 90% of the 'help' posts could have been answered by looking at the wiki.
(I'm definitely a wiki fan as it helped me to learn to flash my phone correctly).
I imagine the problem is that now these phones are more accessible to a wider public, people turn up without any real idea of how things function in here (and indeed in many forums of all sorts).
I've only been here a short while & at first (after learning how to modify my device) did try to answer a few questions with links to the wiki, but after a few days I've become lazy when I see those 'help ! my phone is bricked !' type threads. Which is actually pretty crap on my part as I'm a noob who learnt by looking (& has still much to learn & look through) & I should make an effort to help out other noobs & relieve a bit of the pressure off the older members & mods.
Maybe an idea would be that someone (or some people) could make a small section of noob help to be added to the first mail a member receives when signing up. It could contain links to the wikis & the general hints upon searching before asking obvious questions.
That´s the main problem
Nobody READS, so if more threads pointing to the Wiki are created is going to be the same, noobs will not READ, because as I´ve said before only a few members really care for this site, the mayority only cares for it´s own device problems, want to be answered and in the best case you get a thank you...
Thresher said:
Have there been some rule, practices or standards changes to how members should be interacting on the forums of XDA?
More now than ever I see an increase in moved threads, derogatory comments from older members and a lack of consistency in regulating and allowing questions, answers and comments to be made on the forums. Is this a fabrication of my own mind or has there been an increase that other have noted?
If there have been changes and if there has been an increase in complaint about usage of the forums, conduct, etc, than why have members not received an updated TOS or an email indicating what the changes are? Why are pinned, stickied threads not universally posted across forums so all members see them regardless of what sub-forum they are in?
In other words, why for 4 years does the forum seem polite, friendly and awesome but today I fear to press SUBMIT on anything?
Is the community being stiffled because there are so many new HTC users and they are newbs and taking advantage of the positive community that XDA is?
Anyway I hope that XDA is not seeing an influx of stupidity in it's user community and thus causing pain to the real heroes on this forum. Some of us have politely used this forum as a resource and LIFE SAFER for our devices and we definately don't want things to change.
Thanks for any input to help me ease back into posting and having dialogs with the rom devs and cooks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please See:
TheChampJT said:
There have been a lot of threads being moved to help with the organization. Mainly with the floods of anonymous questions in the wrong areas.
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aE3-ink said:
One major problem seems to be the people who never think to read the wiki, seems that 90% of the 'help' posts could have been answered by looking at the wiki.
(I'm definitely a wiki fan as it helped me to learn to flash my phone correctly).
I imagine the problem is that now these phones are more accessible to a wider public, people turn up without any real idea of how things function in here (and indeed in many forums of all sorts).
I've only been here a short while & at first (after learning how to modify my device) did try to answer a few questions with links to the wiki, but after a few days I've become lazy when I see those 'help ! my phone is bricked !' type threads. Which is actually pretty crap on my part as I'm a noob who learnt by looking (& has still much to learn & look through) & I should make an effort to help out other noobs & relieve a bit of the pressure off the older members & mods.
Maybe an idea would be that someone (or some people) could make a small section of noob help to be added to the first mail a member receives when signing up. It could contain links to the wikis & the general hints upon searching before asking obvious questions.
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orb3000 said:
That´s the main problem
Nobody READS, so if more threads pointing to the Wiki are created is going to be the same, noobs will not READ, because as I´ve said before only a few members really care for this site, the mayority only cares for it´s own device problems, want to be answered and in the best case you get a thank you...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So yeah, there have been an influx of "stupid" newbs. people who take without regard for the informal structure that has existed for years.
There haven't been any Changed to the Rules. Just maybe MORE enforcement to respond to MORE infractions.
orb3000 said:
That´s the main problem
Nobody READS, so if more threads pointing to the Wiki are created is going to be the same, noobs will not READ, because as I´ve said before only a few members really care for this site, the mayority only cares for it´s own device problems, want to be answered and in the best case you get a thank you...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I meant was to not create new threads but answering the posts with the link to the wiki. I just did a few here :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=481763
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=481739
Mainly trying to make them go to the wiki to find their answer.
I guess it's doing half the work for them but I can imagine that some people come along & aren't used to digging around & sometimes need a wee shove to help them along.
Of course some just don't care & I imagine you long timers & mods/admin get really tired of them, so us newer members should start to help out even if it is only in a small way.
orb3000 said:
Of course more rules have to apply.
Also imagine you are a Mod and you find that in a year you answered the same question like 1000 times!, of course you´ll be more sensitive when someone ask the same again.
80% of the members here never READ the rules so they don´t care about them, they just want to be attended and answered by their personal needs
In a few words only a few people really respect this site.
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Click to collapse
Good point, well taken.
Thanks, for the input. I do appreciate it.
Actually, if you read the guidelines Peter P wrote all them years ago they still apply.
For example:
1. Check if something hasn't been asked before - a lot of the mod activity is enforcing this, removing / closing redundant questions that already have answers. The other day I closed a thread with the answer of the wiki home page, nothing more (I was feeling mean ), and 10 minutes later I saw the user download the software they asked for - they must have found the software by searching and reading the wiki .
Just my 2p's worth,
Dave
@Thresher
I guess JimmyMcgee is a bit harsh (stupid newbs), but has a good point anyways. I have been a member of this since July 2005 and this place has not changed a bit. Every single value and rule is the same as when I joined. The structure that this site has, has worked for many years, making this a haven for people that either want to learn or simply need help. It is not the site's rules and regulations that have changed, but the quality of people joining the site...
Over the past year, I have seen virtually every single one of the main and most common sense rules being broken. Point and case, do you know how many threads in Chinese, German, French, Italian (I have yet to see one in Spanish but I have seen a few posts with a lot of cursing in Spanish ) and an endless number of other languages have been started over the last year?? This is an English speaking forum and if I am not mistaken, one of the rules is "please post in English so others can understand"... one would think thats common sense. Of course, you will have the good ol' fashioned person (to avoid name calling) that will rant about how they don't speak English and that it is very unfair how they cannot ask questions (or read the comments) because of that... To that I say, "Google is a wonderful thing, you know? You can do things such as writing your stuff and then using the translate function to turn your question into something that some people might actually be able to understand." Believe me, my first language is Spanish and I would like nothing more than to make less effort into writing, but hey it's not a matter of what I like and what is more convenient... it's common sense.
Now, I read your original thread in the Q&A question where you complained that you posted something in the Raphael forums and got moved somewhere else. That thread where you placed your post clearly stated that no posts/replies were supposed to be made. So, the mods decided to move it where they saw fit to belong. That is what the mods are here for, to turn this utterly, disorganized, never ending chaos that we call a forum and make it enjoyable for them as well as for other members. And they do a great job at that!
Long story short, (again quoting JimmyMcgee)
"There haven't been any Changed to the Rules. Just maybe MORE enforcement to respond to MORE infraction."
Thanks for understanding.
The longer one is on the site, the more one answers the same questions over and over the less nice you are going to be about it.
Loads and loads of people have google search XDA link in there sig, and 90% of questions have been answered at least once before, sometimes even on the same page.
People are lazy, and want it handed to them on a plate, its sad.
The world is constantly developing and changing, the internet reaches more places in the world than ever. With satallites, virtually the whole earth is covered by some sort of cell service ( well except my downstairs office where I can never get a signal ). With the advent of global email and texts, more people than ever have cell phones, and the number of PDA's grow every month.
What used to be a small forum of enthusiats trying out and sharing hacks, to try to make their phones better, has turned into one of , if not the best source of information on the net for Windows Mobile phones. I have not been to a windows mobile , HTC or carrier forum on the net that doesn't reference XDA to people with " unanswerable " questions.
With this designation of " the authority " comes the influx of human nature. "The I want it and I want it now's." The people who think that this is HTC's tech support. The people who don't really care about their phones and don't want to, but just have one question and cannot see why you cannot just anwer it and let them get on with their lives, etc...etc.... Go to any other enthusiast site and see how ignorant ( ie: unknowledgeable ) people get treated, not much differently. " I know that this is a high performance engine forum, where people trade ideas on how to increase the horse power of high performance cars, but can someone tell me where the dipstick is on my 1999 mini van ?"
Too bad there wasn't a way to route every noob or web redirect through a home page that includes the " what XDA is " and the posting rules page, before they can navigate to the site itself. Maybe for at least their first 10 posts or more. The fustrations with redundant questions, ungrateful noobs, people that think this is tech support are endemic of any forum. But I really think that ti is not a problem here, as much as I have seen on other sites. And if someone wants to remedy it, I think the remedy has to work friom the noobs up and not from the seniors down.
Google is a wonderful thing but as Google admits to: human nature, vocabulary, language and grammar make search engine results wildly different for each user. Google also has issues with short words and abbreviations which are used a lot throughout XDA.
The WIKI is great.
I guess other forums I use have a feature to show you similar questions based on the language you used before you finish your post. I wonder if this forum has that ability. I think it comes as part of the vBulletin package but it takes a toll on the server due to DB hits.

Moderation in the Dream forums...

What is going on with the moderation in the Dream forums? I have been coming here for quite a few years now, though more reading than posting I grant. I have never seen such lock happy moderation before though.
In the past on the other subforums locking a thread was fairly rare and moderation more in tune with keeping it civil than anything. Moderators kept the peace but left topics and threads to being mostly self-governing. Occasionally a thread would get moved to off topic or the rebellious user warned but nothing like this. About a dozen threads in the last week, six in the last two days alone.
It seems any thread that the moderators feel is a repeat or not needed is locked. There is no warning or explanation by the moderators, just a lock. Instead of educating the user, search first with a link to what the user should have looked for as an example, the discussion is left in limbo. This is making the forum more of a moderated police state than a area for open conversation on topics. This detracts from the ability to have open discussions and the enjoyment of trying to help others.
So I am asking the moderators to please show restraint and give the posters more leeway. There is no need to lock every thread that is a repeat or could have been solved by a search. The threads will go off the front page in due time, locking them simply is not constructive more often than not. If you absolutely must lock it then at least put a post at the end with a reason.
I am not active in the Dream forum, but I will add my thoughts here.
Certain sections of XDA's forums are subject to stricter moderation then others due to the sheer volume of active members in them. For example, the Raphael has seen a US release on all three nationwide carriers, whereas the prior models only saw release on one carrier. This led to more people buying the Raphael, and a large influx of members in the related forums. Due to that influx, we moderators needed to step up our monitoring of those forums in order to keeping them as clean and concise as possible.
This same example applies to the Dream due to it being the first Android phone released.
While I agree with you that a moderator should always leave a quick note as the final post in a closed thread, I also support closing down redundant threads in order to help keep all relevant information in an existing thread; not spread across 5 or 6 different ones.
So I am asking the moderators to please show restraint and give the posters more leeway. There is no need to lock every thread that is a repeat or could have been solved by a search. The threads will go off the front page in due time, locking them simply is not constructive more often than not. If you absolutely must lock it then at least put a post at the end with a reason.
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NotATreoFan said:
While I agree with you that a moderator should always leave a quick note as the final post in a closed thread, I also support closing down redundant threads in order to help keep all relevant information in an existing thread; not spread across 5 or 6 different ones.
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Just thought I would add my two cents in here ( like anyone cares ) because I too have been irritated once or twice by over zealous moderation. Once by a moderator from the Dream forum who came over to the Kaiser forum to delete a whole conversation, because he " thought " we were getting too heated in our debate over M$ supposed actions . There was no flamebaiting, He just thought.
And several times by threads ( not mine ) that were closed without warning or stated reason. I know this is a huge site with a lot of heavy traffic and the Mods are " overworked and under paid " . I also realize that Mods are from around the world, and Moderation style is subject to differing personalities, social and interpersonal customs from different countries. But common courtesy is universal. While many people don't deserve it, please take the time to include a note on why, the thread requires moderation. If you don't have the time , then maybe you should pass the job on to someone who can take the time.
Also in my 1 1/2 years on this site, ( six mo lurking and 1 yr member ) I have PM'd three mods, asking them to please explain their actions in moderating a thread I was posting in, and in all three cases, received nothing, not even an acknowledgement.
This is not a criticism, just my two cents, should someone read this. I have my favorite mods, (natf is one ) Dave and Josh are excellent in the Kaiser forums, mostly because they adhere to the basic tenet, " Moderation in Moderation. "
mikechannon said:
I realise you are being modest there, and the truth is we do care what members think and voicing concern in a calm fashion is appreciated and this kind of feedback is what moderates the Moderators. This is what makes us a community and avoids an "us and them" situation developing.
I don't have anything of value to add to NotATreoFan's comments which match my own feelings on the matter and IMHO reflect the kind of balance we need between being tolerant, courteous and yet maintaining a degree of organisation.
Mike
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Thanks for taking that in the context that it was meant, I know that Admin and Mods do care what membership thinks.
denco7 said:
Thanks for taking that in the context that it was meant, I know that Admin and Mods do care what membership thinks.
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AND they are simply men and women They could make mistakes, they act differently in the same situation. Suggestions and opinions are always welcome!
i reckon there should be a new button next to the report post button that serves as an appeal button if someone thinks that a tread has been closed for no reason the the button should allow for appeal. a box is filled n explaining the thread and why there was no reason to delete it this is then pmd to the closer of the thread then negotaiations will start
Please do not take my original post too harshly. I do appreciate the mods here on XDA-developers and think that they do a great job. But at the same time when the mods get a little over zealous this seemed the best way to bring up my protest. (I could not PM the moderator in question because I do not know who was closing the threads.)
So thanks again for making this a great place to come back to over the years and keep up the good work.
JanetPanic said:
What is going on with the moderation in the Dream forums? I have been coming here for quite a few years now, though more reading than posting I grant. I have never seen such lock happy moderation before though.
In the past on the other subforums locking a thread was fairly rare and moderation more in tune with keeping it civil than anything. Moderators kept the peace but left topics and threads to being mostly self-governing. Occasionally a thread would get moved to off topic or the rebellious user warned but nothing like this. About a dozen threads in the last week, six in the last two days alone.
It seems any thread that the moderators feel is a repeat or not needed is locked. There is no warning or explanation by the moderators, just a lock. Instead of educating the user, search first with a link to what the user should have looked for as an example, the discussion is left in limbo. This is making the forum more of a moderated police state than a area for open conversation on topics. This detracts from the ability to have open discussions and the enjoyment of trying to help others.
So I am asking the moderators to please show restraint and give the posters more leeway. There is no need to lock every thread that is a repeat or could have been solved by a search. The threads will go off the front page in due time, locking them simply is not constructive more often than not. If you absolutely must lock it then at least put a post at the end with a reason.
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If you ask me there aren't enough locked threads in the dream section. There are over 80 different threads for the new haykuro build there, 80!!! Probably more because i stopped counting at page 20. I also might add that the main haykuro thread has over 6000 posts and counting. The dream section is out of control and needs serious moderator intervention. One moderator simply cannot do all this himself. I know the dream mod, or at least the only active mod there that i can see and he is excellent at not only helping people but moderating in general. Let a thread be self governed? That's a very scary though!!! I am a moderator at another site and i can say it is not a moderators job to be a friend, be respectful or give you an explaination as to why he or she did what they did. Yes i do give an explaination and most mods on here do as well but they are here to maintain the rules of the forum and the upkeep of the forum in general. If threads were locked its more than likely because you or others got off topic, double posted or started a new thread when another about the exact same thing already existed. Case in point, there is a section for members to post questions to mods about anything already and you opened a new thread on the subject.
Ha I couldn't agree MORE with Ryanmo. There should be tighter and more rigid controls there. In fact I don't think it's (currently) possible for there to be moderation there at the moment...too many new bodies added to the fray. And we all know most of them are not reading the Sticky posted at top saying "Must read before you post". I don't have any problem with xda mods enacting 1-3 day temp bans on some of the frequent offenders.
knight4linux said:
Ha I couldn't agree MORE with Ryanmo. There should be tighter and more rigid controls there. In fact I don't think it's (currently) possible for there to be moderation there at the moment...too many new bodies added to the fray. And we all know most of them are not reading the Sticky posted at top saying "Must read before you post". I don't have any problem with xda mods enacting 1-3 day temp bans on some of the frequent offenders.
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Haha yeah the sticky at the top about the rules says a little over 23,000 views. The hacking thread has been viewed over 300,000 times, go figure. I probably report 15 posts a day to try and help but your right its outta control.
Hello Friends,
Well i have seen these site and i am quite surprise here that though more reading than posting I grant. I have never seen such lock happy moderation before though.As i am not a active member but ya i will add my though if any and will discuss So I am asking the moderators to please show restraint and give the posters more leeway. There is no need to lock every thread that is a repeat or could have been solved by a search. The threads will go off the front page in due time, locking them simply is not constructive more often than not. If you absolutely must lock it then at least put a post at the end with a reason. Thanx
can someone please unlock this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=429808&page=22
It is not that rules and regulations are not in place in this site. They are posted all over the place. In fact, if you look at my sig, I have them there as a hyperlink (many other members do the same). Why do threads and posts get locked, moved, or otherwise deleted left and right? It is because lots of users (particularly new ones but seasoned users also) do not read these rules. They do not know that they should search before posting or opening new threads; they do not know that there are sections to ask questions that are not relevant to the section they posted at; they do not know that profanity shouldn't be used around here due to a large young crowd; they do not know that flaming (particularly for no apparent reason) is strictly prohibited....
Moderators have little time to be messing around with people who simply do not understand that there are rules that must be followed (or read for that matter). Hence, they close the threads with no previous notice and at times, leave no excuse behind. They don't do it out of the content of their hearts, and they are definitely not watching over every single thread at all times. If you see a thread being closed, it is normally due to someone complaining about it, and more often than not, mods will analyze the trend of the thread and if necessary either warn users to stop, or just flat out close it (normally they warn unless the thread itself is breaking the rules... think of posting warez for instance).
I have yet to see abuse of power by a mod in this forum. And I am pretty sure that if there happens to be a mod that does abuse his/her God-given powers.... let's just say that they will be judged by a higher power
My 2 cents!
Although some moderators try and go out of their way to leave a message as to why they lock a thread, that is not their job. Our job is to make sure people are following the rules.
Here is a little scenario, i log on at night and jump over to the D&H section.... there i find 10 new threads asking questions.
A) I can delete the threads
B) I can close the threads by simply going through and checking every thread and then closing.
C) i can individually open each thread and leave a message for each person
D) i can wait for another moderator to do it
E) move the thread for them
Well i cant delete them or people will think their thread never got posted and just post it AGAIN. If you move peoples threads for them they think they can post anywhere and it will just be moved where it needs to go. I dont have time to open every thread and leave a message for every person everytime, and if i leave it for another moderator, it might not get done.
Really i am only left with checking all of the threads and closing them. if you have a question you can READ the rules, as it is your resonsibilty as a member, and find the answer. (Or of course you can pm a mod)
You guys have to remember that there are over 1,537,526 members on this site and around 66 mods and admin. We do our best to help you guys but we dont always have the time to write a personal letter for everyone of your and put it in you lunch box.
I agree (not that it matters). Mods have absolutely NO responsibility to post why they closed a thread...Why? Because they already are posted...in the rules up top. Its you, the new users that have the resposibility. That responsibility to read the rules before you post (RTFM). It even says at the bottom (of the rules) what will happen if they are not followed.
And by allowing multiple threads of the SAME simple questions (Especially in a phones development section) this completely ruins development and progress, not to mention this is a free and public forum. That means its hosted on servers, and these duplicate threads/posts start to add up.
Trust me. Frequent the forums for more than a few months and it'll start to wear on you too, almost as much as it does to the mods.
UPDATE:
As of late, there seems to be a lot of issues with the dream section, many many topics on bricked phones, new OS releases, old releases, random topics, and other posts. The title of the forum is Dream android 'development', and its actually hard now to find 'development' scattered in many of the different types of topics in there.
SUGGESTION/RECOMMENDATION:
Make a sub-forum of the development forum (or of the whole dream forum like the current 5 main sub-forums), named something like troubleshooting, or repair, or something like that. That way, anyone with a broken phone can post in there maybe. It might be a bad suggestion simply because the 'helpers' may not check there...but I cant think of a better way to keep the 5 different topics a day saying "I have a different brick problem" organized so actual development [important] topics can stay up top, where they should be.
Anyone with a better idea, express it so something can be done, its quite a mess right now.
[Oh and maybe a description under the android dev. forum something in capital letters saying: be careful, and read everything before taking action!!!, because I think some people end up with bricks because of anticipation and possibly dont read. Just as a [duh] advisory, ya know?]
/rant
Thanks [btw not bashing the mods, its just a bit hectic it seems right now, many things going on there]
theslam08 said:
UPDATE:
As of late, there seems to be a lot of issues with the dream section, many many topics on bricked phones, new OS releases, old releases, random topics, and other posts. The title of the forum is Dream android 'development', and its actually hard now to find 'development' scattered in many of the different types of topics in there.
SUGGESTION/RECOMMENDATION:
Make a sub-forum of the development forum (or of the whole dream forum like the current 5 main sub-forums), named something like troubleshooting, or repair, or something like that. That way, anyone with a broken phone can post in there maybe. It might be a bad suggestion simply because the 'helpers' may not check there...but I cant think of a better way to keep the 5 different topics a day saying "I have a different brick problem" organized so actual development [important] topics can stay up top, where they should be.
Anyone with a better idea, express it so something can be done, its quite a mess right now.
[Oh and maybe a description under the android dev. forum something in capital letters saying: be careful, and read everything before taking action!!!, because I think some people end up with bricks because of anticipation and possibly dont read. Just as a [duh] advisory, ya know?]
/rant
Thanks [btw not bashing the mods, its just a bit hectic it seems right now, many things going on there]
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That has been added as a suggestion and I will push for it again in the mod section.
BTW I am a Dream mod and I am usually the one that closes threads or deletes them. I don't always leave a message because it is more time consuming. I can have an unclean section with everyone getting a response and therefore getting their locked post bumped. Or I can have a cleaner (it will never be clean) section with angry users who didn't search in the first place.
I chose the later by the way.
neoobs said:
That has been added as a suggestion and I will push for it again in the mod section.
BTW I am a Dream mod and I am usually the one that closes threads or deletes them. I don't always leave a message because it is more time consuming. I can have an unclean section with everyone getting a response and therefore getting their locked post bumped. Or I can have a cleaner (it will never be clean) section with angry users who didn't search in the first place.
I chose the later by the way.
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Mhm, and you do what you can, I notice somethings being done by you, which is good that something is being done. I used to mod/administrate big places so I know what its like, its a pain when people cant search, or arent sure of where to post so they post anywhere (sometimes in the effort of 'just getting an answer').
This causes the clutter, especially when there are multiple 'different but very similar' type topics being created, and its tricky to know which to close and which not to close. Thats why I think maybe a separate forum 'might' be the best solution, because as of right now, bricks are happening pretty quickly and thats not good (no one to blame, just the anticipation again).
I appreciate the backing, hope 'something' can be done, its just really crowded right now (making the 'new' browsers get lost [causing the multiple similar topic issue], and your job harder).
One problem is the sticky's need to be updated by the people who started them. Many are older and with 5 different roms available to flash now they simply don't meet the demand for all these different roms. The rom developers need to do a better job of explaining how to flash their roms. The newest one tried to get a little too cute and force a new apps2sd method on users and the result was a lot of looped (not bricked) g1's. The sub forum could consist of how to's and guide's. I'm not sure a sub forum is the best way to go though, There are already 5 and most phones on here don't even have 4. Xda simply need more help with this section, neoobs has been cleaning house and i thank you but you can't do it all lol. I am a moderator on another site, not here but will do what i can to report posts as much as possible to help the mods.
Ryanmo5 said:
One problem is the sticky's need to be updated by the people who started them. Many are older and with 5 different roms available to flash now they simply don't meet the demand for all these different roms. The rom developers need to do a better job of explaining how to flash their roms. The newest one tried to get a little too cute and force a new apps2sd method on users and the result was a lot of looped (not bricked) g1's. The sub forum could consist of how to's and guide's. I'm not sure a sub forum is the best way to go though, There are already 5 and most phones on here don't even have 4. Xda simply need more help with this section, neoobs has been cleaning house and i thank you but you can't do it all lol. I am a moderator on another site, not here but will do what i can to report posts as much as possible to help the mods.
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Agreed 100%, it seems there are alot of stickies there, maybe redundant on some, but are necessary on others. There should be a way to make it distinguishable between information/guides, developments, and problems. They do need to be updated as well.
I agree, a forum might not be the best way because there might be 'lost' posts which would not work either (like the new magic thread that showed up, though I dont dissagree with that simply because the OP is correct, android is android, and the magic needs some help, maybe because we stole quite a bit from it too? lol. but still posting to 'get help' anywhere).
Is there a modification for vb that makes stickies different color than the regular topics? I never administrated vb only ipb and smf so I dont know. But that would be a big help there, then the new comers can instantly see which are informal.
Im trying to report, to help you so you dont need to spend as much time 'looking' as doing the task. Its not 'too' bad right now, when I first posted though omg it was disaster. Once the new rom comes out though....thennn its gonna be biig trouble again.
Update: I was looking at something...the first forum, named Dream. That I was actually looking at for the first time, it seems pretty useless really. A lot of the topics in there could definitely go into the development thread...OR that forum could get changed to something else and cleaned up. There arent many 'general' topics for the phone I dont think, whats general for the phone? What is the g1? Maybe but useless indeed. So maybe instead of MAKING a new forum, just change that one and clean it up. Make it a troubleshooting forum, or a tutorial section, or just updates, or something I dont know. But maybe just better use of it I think.

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